The present invention relates to a method and a device for assisting in the landing of an aircraft, in particular a transport airplane, in a flare phase.
When landing an aircraft, to perform a flare maneuver manually, the pilot of the aircraft has to actuate a control stick, this actuation having to be performed in such a way that the impact of the aircraft with the ground is made in a flexible manner. Executing this flare maneuver in total safety requires a certain flying experience on the part of the pilot. In effect, the actuation of the control stick is based on the view of the pilot of the environment of the aircraft, of flight parameters indicated in the cockpit, and of acoustic parameters such as the noise of the engine or the wind. The attention of the pilot thus has to switch from the piloting instruments to the runway and back again a very great number of times within a short time period.
In order to assist the pilot, there are devices available that make it possible to display a maximum amount of useful information in a head-up display (HUD). However, not all aircraft are equipped with such devices.
Also known are devices designed to prevent the vertical speeds of the aircraft on impact on the runway being greater than a predetermined value, generally 8 feet per second (approximately 2.4 meters per second), if the pilot does not perform the manual flare maneuver correctly. Now, this vertical speed limit of 8 feet per second (approximately 2.4 meters per second) is extremely high, relative to the usual vertical speed target of 2.5 feet per second (approximately 0.76 meters per second). This limit cannot however be less since it would make the device too intrusive in the freedom of maneuver of the pilot.
It is known practice, from the document U.S. Pat. No. 8,831,799, to compute a fixed flare starting from a fixed geographic point and to lock the aircraft along the trajectory corresponding to this flare. This trajectory does, however, remain fixed until the impact of the aircraft on the landing runway. This solution requires the pilot to follow a given trajectory and to adapt his or her piloting technique to follow this trajectory. This solution is not therefore satisfactory.